Dreamweaver: Part Seven
As Logan passed through the door, the world seemed to repeatedly shatter and reform around him, plunging him into a formless void in one moment and overloading his senses the next. The only constant was the feel of Regina's hand in his, pulling him through.
Then, it stopped. Everything was still, although his stomach felt like he'd just ridden the mother of all roller-coasters. He opened his eyes slowly, and found himself standing beside the girl in a wide, dimly lit corridor. The walls were oddly curved, almost concave, with a rough, organic texture.
"I've been here before," he said slowly, sure of it but not quite able to latch onto the memory. Everything seemed--hazy. His senses weren't working properly, either.
"More than once, Logan," Regina said, sounding exasperated. "This is Magneto's Antarctic fortress." She sighed, and he glanced down at her curiously, surprised by the half-amused, half-annoyed expression she wore. "You know, you nearly got your brain fried, going through that door first. Do you ever think before you leap?"
She sounds like Jean, he thought, amused. Quite a change from the terrified kid they'd found in the cabin. "You didn't stop me from going through the door, darlin'," he pointed out, interested to see what her reaction would be.
"That doesn't--" Flushing, she shut her mouth. "I didn't know," she continued in a more level voice. "Not until you'd stepped through, and by that time, all I could was try to help. I told you, Logan, I'm not in control of this. You should be more careful."
He would have said more, but the air to their left rippled, and Sinister appeared, looking unfazed by the transition. He glanced around, a slightly scornful look on his face.
"Magneto's fortress. A vulgar display of power, like everything else of his." Looking down at Regina, his crimson eyes mocking, he seemed to have regained his usual self-assurance. "Odd. I was under the impression that Bishop had never been here."
"Bishop?" Logan asked, then felt stupid as realization hit. Sinister was right. Bishop hadn't been to Magneto's fortress. That, combined with the fact that he didn't appear to be here now--
Regina nodded as he looked down at her questioningly. "Yes. This is Bishop's lesson to learn."
"But he won't be reliving the past, will he?" Logan asked, feeling as if he'd stepped right into Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. Ray, I never knew you had such a sense of humor. "Rachel wants us to see the consequences of our mistakes. Am I right?" He stared down into the girl's eyes, amused to see a gleam of respect there. Good stuff in this kid, I think--once we get her away from Dr. Frankenstein over there. Then again, she's got some damned fine genes, clone or no clone. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised--
"Impossible!" Sinister exclaimed, but there was no conviction in his voice. "Your ability works only on memories. There's no possible way you can show us the future."
Her eyes flashed dangerously. Sinister actually took a step backwards. Logan raised an eyebrow, surprised.
"For the last time, I'm not the one controlling this!" she snapped. "I'm just the means. But since you asked, these are memories. Just not memories that Cable has conscious access to." Sinister looked blank, and she gave a disgusted snort. "You plotted and schemed so that he'd be born, and you don't know? His powers go way beyond telepathy and telekinesis. He's not just a time traveler, like Bishop."
"He--is a chronal-variant mutant?" Sinister asked, a stunned look on his face.
"Among other things," Regina said snidely. "What, aren't you happy to hear that your experiment got such good results?"
Logan was nodding, remembering what he'd been told about the last-ditch effort to stop Legion from killing Magneto in the Israel of the past. Hank had babbled on for days about the Shi'ar device that had tapped Cable's latent time-traveling abilities in order to send his astral form back to warn the timelost X-Men of Legion's intentions. Logan grinned. I might have been living out in the backyard at the time, but you would've been able to hear Hank yammering on all the way to Salem Centre, he was so excited.
Regina was still talking. He shook himself from his reverie and paid close attention to what she was saying.
"--and any c-v mutant, especially one who's used his ability as often as Cable, exists outside time, in a way. He's linked to all his past and future selves in all potential timelines. Just because he can't consciously remember the events you're going to see doesn't mean that memories of them don't exist somewhere in his mind." She shook her head at Sinister's dazed expression. "Oh, never mind! Just shut up and be ready."
"Ready for what?" Logan asked. How does she know all this? he wondered. Was Rachel still at work here, somehow?
"To watch," she snapped impatiently, folding her arms and turning away. "But I should warn you. It's not going to be pretty."
***
Suddenly overcome by a wave of dizziness, Bishop flung out a hand and braced himself against the wall. What--? The moment of disorientation passed quickly, but left a gnawing anxiety in its wake.
"Sugar? Y'alright?" Rogue was peering at him in obvious concern. She reached out to support him, but hesitated, frowning, as he flinched away. "Bishop? What is it?"
"Rogue--" he said, feeling uneasy as he looked down at her. "You're--" Older? Her auburn hair was streaked with silver, pulled back into a tight braid, and the look in her eyes was wrong, too grim and hard for the Rogue he knew. Instead of her usual green and gold bodysuit and leather jacket, she wore dark green body armor, sleek and functional. It gave her a rather dangerous look, he thought, inconsequentially.
"Ah'm what?" she asked, her green eyes puzzled. He tried to tell her, and couldn't. The words simply wouldn't come out. She shook her head. "Never mind, sugar. Ah don't want t'know." She glanced over her shoulder. "Pete, Nate?" she called softly. "Hold up, y'all. There's somethin' wrong with Bishop."
Bishop saw a dark blur, too fast for his eyes to follow, and Quicksilver was suddenly standing at his side. Bishop stared at him, baffled by the new lines in the Avenger's face, the jagged scar slashing across one cheek--even the black body armor, similar in design to Rogue's, that had replaced his usual silver and white costume.
"Bishop?" Pietro asked, his brow furrowed in worry. "Come on, old friend, snap out of it! We can't afford a delay now, not when we're so close."
Old friend? Bishop thought incredulously. Since when does Quicksilver have friends? He opened his mouth to ask them what was going on, but the arrival of the fourth member of their party threw him into a confused silence.
"Bishop? Are you all right?" Cable asked quietly. He wore dark blue armor of the same type as the other two--three, Bishop corrected as he noticed that he was dressed in a similar fashion. There were the same subtle signs of aging in his face as there had been in Quicksilver's, and a bone-deep, curiously resigned weariness in his expression, as if he'd been carrying some unimaginable weight for so long that he'd become accustomed to it.
Bishop's unease and doubts were suddenly washed away by a tidal wave of anger as he met Cable's eyes. "I'm fine," he growled. Stupid, he chided himself. Now's not the time to be daydreaming. "It's Magneto that you need to worry about, Cable," he pointed out acidly, ignoring the flash of hurt in Cable's eyes. "If this plan of yours doesn't work--which wouldn't surprise me, considering your record--and we can't destroy this machine of his--"
"I'm quite aware of the consequences, Bishop," Cable said, his voice suddenly cold and impassive. "So, if you're done holding us up--" He turned his back on Bishop and continued down the hallway. Pietro, with a reproachful look in Bishop's direction, followed.
Rogue growled and punched him in the shoulder, not lightly. Bishop winced, glad he was wearing armor. Still, he'd have a hell of a bruise in the morning--if they lived that long.
"What did you do that for?" he protested.
"Idiot!" Rogue hissed, real anger in her eyes as she glared up at him. "Thick-headed, paranoid fool of a man! If Storm was here, she'd boot your sorry ass into the middle o'next week!"
"But she's not here," Bishop snarled, hatred and grief warring within him. "And it's his fault, Rogue. Ororo's death, what happened to Scott and Logan--"
Rogue slapped him, hard. It took him a moment to recover. When his head stopped spinning, he looked back at him, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. By then, her expression was more sorrowful than angry.
"Ah feel sorry for you, Bish," she said quietly. "You and Challa both. After what happened t'Remy, you think ah don't know how it hurts t'lose the one y'love?" Her green eyes filled with grief for a moment, and then hardened. "But ah won't stand for you blamin' Nate for what Apocalypse did. 'Roro and Scott and Wolvie chose t'get involved. If ah'd been there, I probably would've done the same thing."
"I would have let him die," Bishop grated, staring accusingly at Cable's retreating back. Rogue sighed, but Bishop started after Cable and Pietro, not wanting to hear any more of the same old lecture. Rogue wasn't the only one who'd been spewing it at him lately. Moira had told him flat-out last week that she thought he was a colossal ass, and Cecilia's language had been even less complimentary. Betsy hadn't spoken to him in months.
But it was Cable's fault. All of it. It seemed like every time he and Apocalypse fought, innocent bystanders got killed. The last time, the two of them did more damage to New York than Onslaught did ten years ago! And yet the rest of the X-Men still swallowed this 'Chosen One' idiocy without complaint. Even Storm, his beautiful, strong-minded Ororo--
Bishop forced every bit of grief to the back of his mind. He had to focus on the mission, on destroying Magneto's machine so that Challa could grow up in a world without Lehnsherr's particular brand of terror. There were still a thousand other threats to his sweet daughter, but he'd eliminate them, one by one, if it took him the rest of his life. Even the ones closest to home--
They moved through the fortress, carefully avoiding the habitated areas. They'd deliberately chosen a time when most of the Acolytes would be at worship. The few sentries still at their posts were easily dealt with. Cable merely sent them a mental command to go to sleep, and they dropped where they stood. The mechanical defenses were even more easily eluded, thanks to Forge's scrambler. As much as Bishop personally disliked the man--Ororo was still an open wound for both of them, even a year after her death--he had to admit that he was a wizard when it came to whipping up needed technology on short notice.
So you cut him some slack because he makes good gadgets? whispered a familiar voice in his head. At first he thought it sounded like Jubilee, but only the sarcasm was the same. But he knew he'd heard it before. He just couldn't remember from where. You hypocrite, it continued. You tolerate Forge because he's useful, but you hate and distrust Nathan, who's done nothing by try to rid the world of an unspeakable evil. No one else is capable of doing it, Bishop. You saw what happened when Storm and Cyclops and Wolverine tried. But Nathan was born for it. He's been fighting for his entire life towards that end. And you hate him for it.
"Shut--up," he grated. But the girl's voice continued, full of scorn.
You think you're the only one who's lost, Bishop? The only one who's alone? Go ahead, keeping wallowing in your isolation. Let it eat you alive.
Abruptly, there was silence where the voice had been. Shaken, Bishop followed Cable and Pietro through a portal that opened at a gesture from Cable. The fortress is techno-organic, Bishop remembered. He can control it as if it was his own T-O incursion. They'd counted on that, to give them an advantage.
Beyond was a cavernous chamber filled by a massive device that bore a clear resemblance to Shi'ar technology. Four red-garbed Acolytes were lying unconscious on the floor. Cable gave them a cursory look, while Quicksilver made a couple of quick passes around the machine. Rogue landed at Bishop's side, casting a quick, measuring look at him before flying up to check the machine's structural supports.
"Well, the Shi'ar technology is clearly part of what he stole from us three years ago during the Acolyte attack on the mansion," Quicksilver reported, coming to a stop beside Cable. "But the machine is based on Zaladane's original design, just like your source said."
A throaty laugh came from the shadows. "Nathan knows I'd never lie to him, Pietro." Amelia Voght stepped into the light, still wearing the uniform of an Acolyte officer. She regarded Cable with an odd look in her green eyes. "You certainly took your time getting here."
"Complaints, complaints," Cable muttered, raising an eyebrow. "We made it, didn't we?"
"That you did," she said with a smile.
Bishop gaped at her. Cable had never revealed who his contact in the Acolytes was, but strangely enough, it made sense. Amelia and the Professor had been lovers at the same time that Cable had been helping with the construction of the mansion's underground complex, all those years ago. He must have left her the memory of those days, probably because she had broken off with Xavier at that point. If Cable had altered her mind like he'd done with Jean and the Professor, Voght would never have forgiven him. If there was one constant in her nature, it was how well she held a grudge.
Strange--Amelia had been part of the group of Acolytes who had once tried to abduct Cable and force him to reactivate Greymalkin's systems. Then again, she had switched sides and helped him fight Omega Red. And the two of them had never come into direct conflict since, in all the many battles between the X-Men and the Acolytes. From the warmth of the look she was giving Cable, Bishop realized that any enmity between them was long gone. Between that, and the fact that she was risking her life to spy on Magneto for him--
What did you do to earn all this loyalty, Cable? Bishop thought resentfully.
You know, it's a funny thing, the voice said sarcastically, but most people tend to admire someone who has such an iron-clad sense of responsibility that he puts his own needs and fears at the very bottom of his list of priorities. Fancy that.
"No one saw you come in, I trust," Cable said to Amelia dryly.
"I'm a teleporter, Nathan," she said archly, vanishing and then rematerializing at his side, as if to prove her point. "People don't see me unless I choose." She smiled with real friendliness at Quicksilver and Rogue, neither of whom looked overly suprised to see her, but her expression hardened as she saw Bishop. "Well, well. This isn't quite the team I thought you'd be bringing on a mission like this. You couldn't have found someone more reliable--Marrow, maybe?"
"Good to see you too, Voght," Bishop said through clenched teeth. "I didn't think you'd be the traitor."
She glared right back at him, her green eyes icy, and Bishop was struck, not for the first time, at how closely she resembled Jean Grey. "There's no dishonor in betraying a madman, Bishop," she said in a low, dangerous voice. "And as for you, that rigid black-and-white morality is going to get you killed one of these days."
She turned back to Cable, and Bishop strained to hear what they were saying. "I spoke to her," Amelia whispered. "I think she's willing."
Cable's shoulder slumped, a pained look coming over her features. "Oath, I hope so," he said softly. "I made a promise to him, and I intend to keep it."
Bishop was quite sure that their conversation hadn't been meant for his ears. They exchanged a few more words that he couldn't hear. Then, Amelia shifted into her mist-form and vanished.
"Keep watch at the door, Bishop," Cable ordered, without looking at him. Flustered, Bishop obeyed, hoping that Cable hadn't been reading his mind. Taking his place at the open portal, he glanced back to see Cable standing in front of the command console, inserting the Beast's viral program that would fool the monitoring systems into believing that the machine was still operational. "All right," he said, studying the screen intently. "At your convenience, my friends?"
His three teammates set to work with their various abilities, dismantling the machine quickly and quietly. It would have been faster to simply destroy it, but they needed some of the Shi'ar elements, particularly the power cell, to repair the mansion's systems. Replacement parts were in short supply lately, since Lilandra had quarantined Earth. Minutes passed, and they remained undiscovered. Bishop began to wonder if they were actually going to get away with this.
There was a hissing sound, and Voght materialized beside him, looking satisfied.
"Bishop, we're--" she stared, but a slender, hooded Acolyte came running through the door before she could say another word. With a snarl, Bishop brought his gun to bear on the Acolyte, only to have it knocked out of his hands by a burst of telekinetic energy. His own blast of bio-energy bounced off a TK shield that suddenly appeared between him and the Acolyte.
#Bishop, no!# Cable's voice snarled in his head. Rage swamped reason as the image of Challa growing up an orphan because this Acolyte survived to warn Magneto shattered the last vestiges of his self-control. With a roar of pure fury, he whirled around and cut loose with every bit of bio-energy he had stored, right at the man who was going to leave his daughter alone in the world.
The blast hit Cable full in the chest, hurling him across the room until he hit the opposite wall and crumpled to the ground.
"BISHOP!" Rogue shrieked. "What're y'doing?"
Quicksilver sped to Cable's side, but Cable was already struggling to his feet, the fact that he hadn't been incinerated by the blast suggesting that he'd sensed Bishop's intention in time to shield himself from most of the attack. But he looked dazed, disoriented, the expression of concentration he'd worn since they left the Blackbird gone.
"You moron!" Quicksilver roared at Bishop, slipping an arm around Cable's shoulders to keep him from going right back to the ground. "He was shielding us from Magneto's telepaths, Bishop!"
Cable's left eye spat fire, and his dazed expression changed to one of despair. "Too late," he groaned, sinking back to the ground despite Quicksilver's support. "He's coming."
Amelia gasped as the whole fortress shuddered. Above them, the ceiling exploded. Trembling with the effort, Cable deflected the debris, but as Bishop saw Magneto float down from above, at the center of a sphere of crackling blue energy, he wondered if being crushed to death wouldn't have been the better end.
Rogue dove at Magneto, but he casually batted her away, as if she were nothing but an insect. She hit the ground hard, and got to her feet slowly.
Magneto's attention was fixed on Cable. "You are a fool, Dayspring," he said, his eyes blazing coldly. "A fool from a family of fools. You dare to challenge me here, in my place of power? To think that I had regarded the X-Men as a greater threat for your leadership of them."
"I wouldn't change your opinion yet, Magneto!" Cable snarled, a fiery nimbus springing into life around him as he drew on the Phoenix-force. He glared at Magneto, and the Acolytes' leader grunted as a wave of telekinetic energy sent him spinning backwards. He recovered quickly, stretching out a hand towards Cable. His attack shattered on Cable's shield, but Cable was visibly staggered.
Cable glanced sideways at Quicksilver. A look of near agony crossed Pietro's face in a flash, but then he nodded, his expression turning grim, and sped away, out of the line of fire and towards the machine. Magneto gave an indignant howl, launching an attack on his son, but Cable deflected it and sent a barrage of debris at him, distracting him for long enough to let Pietro get the power cell from the machine.
"Bishop?" came a familiar, trembling voice. Bishop whirled around to face Amelia and the Acolyte, horrified as he realized what was going on. He watched slender hands reach up and push the hood back.
Jubilee stared at him, unshed tears in her blue eyes. "How could you--why did you--"
His promise was to Logan, Bishop realized, feeling sick to his stomach. He promised that he'd bring Jubilee back. What have I done? The murder of Synch four years ago at the hands of the FOH, had shattered Jubilee's faith in the Professor's dream, and she'd gone to join the Acolytes. Logan had never been quite the same, afterwards. Bishop had often wondered if it was that loss which had pushed him to the point where he'd gone beserk and attacked Apocalypse that day.
While Bishop was still contemplating his folly, Quicksilver appeared beside them, cradling the Shi'ar power cell in the crook of his arm. "We've got to get everyone out of here," he said, shooting a look of pure loathing at Bishop. "Amelia, I'm going to need your help with the Acolytes."
The air in the chamber grew heavy with power as Magneto and Cable battled, each throwing everything they had into the contest. The whole fortress was shaking, the walls beginning to crack under the strain.
"What about Cable?" Jubilee asked desperately. "Pietro, we can't leave Nathan behind!"
Quicksilver glanced down at her, his face impassive despite the obvious pain in his eyes. Pietro and Cable had been close friends, Bishop found himself remembering, ever since Crystal and Domino's deaths, within mere weeks of each other. "That's his order, Jubilee. It's the only way."
"He can't beat him, can he?" Jubilee moaned, sinking her face into her hands. "This is my fault!" she wailed.
"No, sugar. It's not," Rogue said, landing beside them and lifting Jubilee into her arms. Tears ran down her cheeks, but the expression in her eyes as she looked at Bishop was glacial. "Let's go, Pete. Nate wants us outta the way before he cuts loose with the Phoenix force." She gave Amelia an odd look, almost of sympathy. "Come on, Amy," she said softly. "He wouldn't want you t'see this." Amelia, a dazed, numb expression on her chalk-white face, followed Rogue without a word.
Bishop turned, took one last look back at the two figures locked in their titanic struggle, one surrounded by a blue halo and the other standing in the center of the firebird-effect of the Phoenix-force. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to fall to his knees and beg Nathan for his forgiveness. I was such a damned fool, and now look what my foolishness has done--
Cable looked at him for a moment. The expression on his face was one of terrible strain, but there was no blame or anger in his eyes. Only understanding.
#Apology--accepted. Now--go! And tell--tell Amelia I'm sorry--#
By the time they had evacuated the Acolytes from the fortress, the tremors had grown worse. Much worse. The weather patterns in the area were twisting, warping under the pressure of so much power. From the blackness of the sky, a mighty storm was brewing.
"At least we don't have to worry about the machine," Amelia said dully as they stood on a nearby ridge, watching the fortress slowly collapse. She fell to her knees, weeping, and Rogue went and took her into her arms, murmuring something softly.
When the fortress exploded, the Phoenix-effect shot up from the ruins for a moment, before it faded forever, gone from the world along with the last of the Summers. Bishop felt something quiver and go still within him. The last bit of the man he'd been?
He heard the voice again. It sighed.
Do you hear Apocalypse laughing, Bishop? I do.
***
"Bishop?"
He opened his eyes with a gasp, shocked to find himself standing apparently alone on the ridge. There was no trace of Rogue or Quicksilver or Amelia. No sign that the fortress had ever been there. Even the vivid white of the snow was fading, as if--
As if it wasn't real, he thought, and in that moment, it all came back.
He looked down at himself, to see the clothes he'd been wearing an eternity ago in the diner. Not the armor that he--that his future self had been wearing. He realized that his cheeks were wet with tears.
"Do you understand now, Bishop?" It was Regina who had spoken, Regina who had been the voice in his mind all along. He gazed down at her as she came to his side. Logan and Sinister were standing a short distance away, as if hesitant to interfere.
"He's not Stryfe," she continued. "He's not Nate Grey. In a way, you've been as bad as some of these mutant-hating humans. You fear and distrust him because of his power. You've seen that power gone bad, or gotten out of control, so you assume the same will happen with him. But you can't do that, Bishop. You have to give him a chance. What he's trying to do is so important--he could change the world for all of us. But when someone that should be supporting him mistrusts him so deeply, it makes it so much harder. And what he's got to do, his 'mission', is hard enough already."
He nodded, smiling a little. She sounds so much like Jubilee, despite all those wise words.
She smiled back at him, taking his hand. "But in the end, it's not about Cable, not really. It's about you. Are you noticing a pattern here, Bishop? Do you remember how you treated Gambit when you first met him?" Her eyes glowed, as they had back in the cabin. "Do you want to end up as the man you were a moment ago? Bitter, hateful, dead inside?"
Bishop dropped to his knees, sinking his face into his hands as he remembered his future-self's grief. "Ororo," he whispered. "Challa."
"Possibilities," she said softly. "It doesn't have to turn out this way, Bishop. Not if you choose to change it."
"It's not a matter of choice!" he said harshly. "I have to change it!"
There was an odd, popping noise. Bishop looked up sharply to see that a door had appeared a short distance away. Logan walked over to his side, squeezing his shoulder briefly.
"I'd applaud, kid, if I weren't already worried about what might be behind that door," he said roughly. The glimpse of a possible future had obviously affected him, as well. "Is that one mine, Regina?"
"No," she said, looking pointedly at Sinister. With a scowl, the geneticist strode towards the door. Watching, the two X-Men saw the words written there shift and change. Second Inferno, it read.
"The Askani doesn't translate into English very well," Regina said almost apologetically. "But the sense is there."
With a growl of frustration, Sinister threw open the door and went through. After a long moment, the two X-Men followed.
to be continued...
alicia's stories | [ARCHIVE] | comicfic.net